He is one of the most well-known and respected fighters in Ireland. Mark Casserly (Champion) has won numerous titles on the local scene and abroad but on December 5th he stepped in on short notice at Caged Muay Thai 7 to face one of finest Muay Thai fighters in the world – The legendary John Wayne Parr. Fighting at his first ever Caged Muay Thai event, Mark won the hearts of a nation for his valiant efforts inside the cage. Unfortunately it was not to be his night but he took a lot of positives from the experience. Fightstore Media sat down with Mark to take an in-depth look at his preparation, talk about how events unfolded and find out what the future holds for him.

In part one of our interview with Mark Casserly we will find out what he thought about both JWP and Badato, and we take a look at how he prepared himself mentally for the fight.

Speaking about the fight he said, “I think when you’re fighting professionally you have to get used to winning and losing and then you have to define them as well. It can be unhealthy to define every loss in the ring as a bad performance. I could have done a lot better and what I’m taking away from it is that I fought a main event in Brisbane against John Wayne Parr. A lot of things worked well even though the decision didn’t go my way in the end. I know what I need to work on. After having time to think about it I’m happy to have had the opportunity to fight a hero of mine since I started Muay Thai. I’m still thinking about that and I’m happy about it. No one likes to not get their hand raised but it was a great experience.”

The original fight card had matched him against Michael Badato but when JWP’s opponent couldn’t get a visa he was asked to step in to headline the event. “It was just before my flight. The same day I was fighting out they asked if I’d be interested in fighting JWP. I said 110%.”

Mark spoke highly of Badato and was aware of the dangers he could have faced if the fight had gone ahead. “Michael Badato, who I was originally meant to fight and is a phenomenal fighter, he was off my radar but over there he was causing ruptions. He’s been knocking people out, he fought Yoann Lidon, the French Champion and knocked him out in round one. He’s world class and has tremendous knockout power. JWP was the high profile fight and one of the best fighters in the world but Badato was a very close and dangerous second. Badato has five straight knockouts in round one.”

JWP treated Mark and his team like part of the family. He brought them for a tour of the city and treated them to dinner but what effect did this nice persona have on Mark?

“There was no ulterior motive. The better the fighter you are, there’s no persona or act. When I do other things in everyday life I will always have the mentality of a fighter. It isn’t always aggression, it’s also problem solving, abstract thinking and experience. There’s a lot of other things that go with it. You just have to be self-confident and know that you go to war the next day but that doesn’t mean that you have to be enemies. In my career through Olympic tae kwon do, Muay Thai, K1 I’ve fought UFC guys, two Olympic champions and they all have the same thing in common. The top end guys are all self-confident, they have a lot of time and respect for their opponents and I think there’s a common denominator there for greatness. That’s definitely something I seen with JWP and Badato.”

JWP has a very friendly personality making you almost want to be his friend but did you find this confusing or conflicting?

“There’s a certain amount of ambivalence there about what you are feeling but I’ve been through it many times and it suits me. I’ve had guys who do the whole theatrical push and are always angry as fighters but to be honest the scary guys are the ones who are smiling and quiet. It’s not an act, it’s just them being them and it means they’re alwaysclued into the moment. The best fighters in the world can focus in short periods of time and live in the moment; that’s how they knock people out. When they’re in pain they don’t go to a happy place; they learn how to increase their threshold of pain and how to focus sharper. This is why I know that guys who are relaxed and clam are quite dangerous. That’s my philosophy and he’s obviously had three times as many fights. I think I was his 123rd fight and I’ve 47 in Muay Thai. You never stop learning and even if I had 123 fights I’d still think I have a live times worth of knowledge to learn. At no point did I feel like he was trying to disarm me with his charm.”

This was the largest event that Mark had ever fought on. He has learnt a lot from testing himself on the biggest stages and applies that to his methodology. “Its perception, the way I went into it and the way I have done for many years if I’m fighting in Canada or China, I treat every fight as if it’s in the same place, this one ring and opponent in a black hole. I don’t care where it is I’m always fighting in the same ring against the same guy. What I find is that takes away the extrinsic stress; I’m not thinking about the lights, I don’t care if the MC messes up my name, I don’t let anything affect me, all I know is there’s definitely one ring, one referee and there’s one competitor and I’m going to go to war. Once I keep that template in my head and my training flows over into it then that’s my performance. I’ll dissect what I’ve done right and wrong and if they’re any hesitations; this is what I’ll do to fine tune it over the next week.”

At this stage in his career the opponent doesn’t matter to Mark. He acts the same for every one of his fights. “Regardless of a world class fighter like JWP I’m nervous every single fight. I think I’m nervous of letting people down even though there is no pressure. I do feel that when you’re training and competing that you sacrifice a lot personally and professionally with friends and family, your partner so you do have to be very selfish. You sacrifice a lot of time with people. I could also see them sacrificing their time for me too. It’s a linear effect, I’m affecting positively and negatively on them and they want me to do well. I know they just want me to be happy and safe but I think fighters do take on the weight of the world. The more fights I have, I learn that it’s more about what you do outside of the ring handling the stress, how to relax and have relationships. I found that JWP, who has fought so many time, he was a genuine, normal person that can have an instant rapport with someone. It’s a long journey and I think everyone learns their own template of how they should act.”

Part 2 of “Mark Casserly on his headline fight with John Wayne Parr at CMT 7” coming soon.

You can find Mark Casserly on Facebook.